Macedonia

Ben Gannon-Doak turned North Macedonia inside out and upside down. He is woefully short of minutes for his club, Bournemouth, and lacks sharpness and ruthlessness as a consequence. His delivery has always lacked accuracy.

His raw materials, though, are exhilarating. His pace, his involvement, his number of touches, his chances.

He never left North Macedonia alone. They survived only because he blasted over with one of his chances, shot tamely with another, lost composure with a third one. Having tormented North Macedonia, he allowed them off the hook, but he was a one-man thrill-fest.

He’s 20, that can’t be forgotten. He’s going to be around for a lot of years and will play a heap of big games, but with his club he’s got some decisions to make.

Two minutes against Liverpool, 19 against Sociedad, eight against Brentford, one minute against Newcastle and Man City. The only game he has started this season was a League Cup tie against Lincoln.

Bournemouth is a tough team to get into, but he needs more time on the grass, more opportunity to develop. Maybe a loan move in January would make sense for him, if his club allows him to go. A big ‘if’.

That’s a situation Gannon-Doak needs to resolve for himself – and for Scotland.

What should be a little more straightforward is giving Kieron Bowie another start.

The Sassuolo striker was sacrificed just over 10 minutes into his first Scotland start to make space for Welsh in defence.

His partnership with Oli McBurnie showed promising signs in the 20 minutes or so they were together in Slovenia, but there was little time to build on that cameo against the Swiss. Surely he and the Hull City striker will get another chance?

If there were any concerns McBurnie wasn’t up for the fight – five years on from his last international involvement – they have been quashed in these past two games.

His work-rate as a largely solo striker – hauling his team up and holding the ball in – was commendable. If only Bowie was still on the field for the flurry of flick-ons he won in the first half.

Pocognoli has inherited one of the overriding problems Clarke wrestled with during his spell – scoring goals. That’s four games now without one, and the Scots are just 25 minutes away from setting a new – unwanted – record for failing to score.

In 1970-71, they went 447 minutes without finding the back of the net – it’s been 422 minutes of football since McGinn’s deflected strike against Haiti in Boston.

If there’s ever a time, boys…